-Chronic Faultfinding = Sign of a Mental Illness.

Monday, the first sentence of a New York Times article stated “President Donald Trump spent the eve of his first summit with President Vladimir Putin of Russia finding fault with allies, Barack Obama and the news media…” I emphasize the “finding fault” part of the sentence since chronically finding faults in others and themselves is the most important diagnostic sign displayed by those with the mental illness Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD).

Trump is constantly finding faults with anyone who disagrees with him. This faultfinding in BPD patients is driven by the black-and-white thinking that is so characteristic of this disease. Everyone is seen as all-good or all-bad. There are no gray areas where a person can be good but still have flaws. This chronic criticism of others by BPD sufferers is what causes recurrent relationship problems these individuals experience. Donald Trump and unrelenting faultfinding are almost synonyms.

BPD sufferers are chronically finding faults in themselves. This is because they also view themselves as being either all-good or all-bad. If they perceive even one fault in themselves they then believe they are all-bad. This leads to persistent feelings of low self-worth. To try to feel better about themselves they keep putting others down with criticisms. This is the primary reason why Faultfinding Personality Disorder might be a better name for this mental illness. If this disease was called Faultfinding Personality Disorder before the election, it might have prompted many people to ask if Donald Trump has this disease. If so, we might not be in our current situation.